Hughes Net Satellite Internet

[El Jefe]

Has anyone used or is using Hughes Net Currently? I live in the country, but not very far out honestly, but our only provider is century link. Our internet is terrible and they continually say its because we are at the end of their service area, so it is slower. We have replaced routers (per their recommendations), and it is still garbage. I have no other options, no TWC or AT&T or Spectrum offered in our area. I would like to get an XBOX 1 X, and get into some gaming, but my internet is putrid.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by bowener

They did. $400 Billion and running. The big guys just pocketed everything. All those additional fees you pay for your internet are a holdover from the late 90s early 2000s that they added "temporarily" to fund a nationwide fiber expansion that never happened.

Don't worry though. After net neutrality is killed, all those giant service providers won't be held back by any more pesky regulations. We can all expect voluntary infrastructure expansion, more choices of providers, and better service. You see they wanted to do all those things already, but were being held back. It should be unicorns and rainbows from here on out...

[BlackHelicopters]

Originally Posted by Fish

Don't worry though. After net neutrality is killed, all those giant service providers won't be held back by any more pesky regulations. We can all expect voluntary infrastructure expansion, more choices of providers, and better service. You see they wanted to do all those things already, but were being held back. It should be unicorns and rainbows from here on out...

Heh

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by Fish

Don't worry though. After net neutrality is killed, all those giant service providers won't be held back by any more pesky regulations. We can all expect voluntary infrastructure expansion, more choices of providers, and better service. You see they wanted to do all those things already, but were being held back. It should be unicorns and rainbows from here on out...

Lulz. This thread should be required reading for those idiots in the NN DC thread.

[bowener]

Originally Posted by oldman

First of all, you need 2 fibers in any network. Second, it would require placing about 1.5 miles of new fiber just to get into the neighborhood (buried or aerial?). That's the easy part. Next, install access points (pedestals), place fiber drops, and obtain enough terminal equipment for everyone. Still easy. Now, buy the electronics. Some of those cards, not just the hardware, cards, are over $175K and you need 4 (working and protect) towards the field just for the optic signal. Add the individual channel cards both at the far end terminal and the POP and you have a good $2-3M tied up in just the field side. You then have to deal with a co-located vendor (Sprint, AT&T, etc.) to carry your signal back to the far end ISP. It's not just fiber.

I think we must be talking about two different things. I don't know where he is actually located, but to build a 100' tower is about $6-8k. Land prices not included. Leasing fiber is different everywhere but let's say $1500 a fiber a month. The equipment on the tower is $15k, and another $7k for all the equipment on the homes themselves. If the backbone is a mile away from the tower site, and somewhere rural where there is no pavement, he can direct bury (depending on the county/state permitting) at $2 a foot probably. If there is boring required the price per foot triples pretty easily. $10-15k for a mile buried (very pricey side). If he wanted to get permits for the poles and the owner didn't require anything ridiculous of him, that can take months and cost a few dollars or much higher per attachment permit (required for each pole). That assumes they have room on their poles, but about 80% the cost of buried for aerial. If weather like icing or high winds/downed trees is an issue, then aerial is not recommended.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by El Jefe

Has anyone used or is using Hughes Net Currently? I live in the country, but not very far out honestly, but our only provider is century link. Our internet is terrible and they continually say its because we are at the end of their service area, so it is slower. We have replaced routers (per their recommendations), and it is still garbage. I have no other options, no TWC or AT&T or Spectrum offered in our area. I would like to get an XBOX 1 X, and get into some gaming, but my internet is putrid.

We have the same issues here El Jefe, out in the country with only Centurylink or Hughes.

From our experience, if you want to learn to appreciate what you have with Centurylink, just sign a contract with Hughes. It was ****ing awful. We were constantly hit with data upgrades etc. It got expensive, and we were constantly shut down for lack of data. I don't do gaming either.

Don't believe a ****ing thing they tell you.

I ended up paying $175 cancellation fee after a couple months, taking the head off of their dish and sending it back to them. This was two years ago.

Maybe they are better now? My neighbor was so upset with Centurylink, like we were, that he went with Hughes. He isn't online much and he said it is fine.

[oldman]

Originally Posted by bowener

I think we must be talking about two different things. I don't know where he is actually located, but to build a 100' tower is about $6-8k. Land prices not included. Leasing fiber is different everywhere but let's say $1500 a fiber a month. The equipment on the tower is $15k, and another $7k for all the equipment on the homes themselves. If the backbone is a mile away from the tower site, and somewhere rural where there is no pavement, he can direct bury (depending on the county/state permitting) at $2 a foot probably. If there is boring required the price per foot triples pretty easily. $10-15k for a mile buried (very pricey side). If he wanted to get permits for the poles and the owner didn't require anything ridiculous of him, that can take months and cost a few dollars or much higher per attachment permit (required for each pole). That assumes they have room on their poles, but about 80% the cost of buried for aerial. If weather like icing or high winds/downed trees is an issue, then aerial is not recommended.

Again, it's not the cost of the fiber, it's the cost of the electronics to make it work. Why would you need a tower? You have to get to a hub and place electronics in both the hub and the POP. Trust me, that's the pricey part, at least $2-3M for each hub. Depending on how you will serve your subscribers out of the hub will determine what costs you will face from there. Buried is the only way to go, IMO. You'll need some electronics at each access point as well as the sub end. Next, you'll have to find a vendor to carry your signal back to the ISP. If you think you can get them to carry an optical level signal (minimum OC-3) from a rural POP to a vendor ISP (don't forget those hosting costs) for $1500 a month, I have a bridge to sell you. Don't forget you'll have to have optical transmitters/receivers from your concentrator to the transport vendor.
Bottom line is that most companies don't have the resources to lay out that kind of start up cost without help from the Feds or state. Depending on how many subscribers you have out of each hub, it'll take quite some time to recover just the initial outlay.

[bowener]

Originally Posted by oldman

Again, it's not the cost of the fiber, it's the cost of the electronics to make it work. Why would you need a tower? You have to get to a hub and place electronics in both the hub and the POP. Trust me, that's the pricey part, at least $2-3M for each hub. Depending on how you will serve your subscribers out of the hub will determine what costs you will face from there. Buried is the only way to go, IMO. You'll need some electronics at each access point as well as the sub end. Next, you'll have to find a vendor to carry your signal back to the ISP. If you think you can get them to carry an optical level signal (minimum OC-3) from a rural POP to a vendor ISP (don't forget those hosting costs) for $1500 a month, I have a bridge to sell you. Don't forget you'll have to have optical transmitters/receivers from your concentrator to the transport vendor.
Bottom line is that most companies don't have the resources to lay out that kind of start up cost without help from the Feds or state. Depending on how many subscribers you have out of each hub, it'll take quite some time to recover just the initial outlay.

I was offering up the cheapest idea for 40 hookups which is going wireless.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by oldman

Again, it's not the cost of the fiber, it's the cost of the electronics to make it work. Why would you need a tower? You have to get to a hub and place electronics in both the hub and the POP. Trust me, that's the pricey part, at least $2-3M for each hub. Depending on how you will serve your subscribers out of the hub will determine what costs you will face from there. Buried is the only way to go, IMO. You'll need some electronics at each access point as well as the sub end. Next, you'll have to find a vendor to carry your signal back to the ISP. If you think you can get them to carry an optical level signal (minimum OC-3) from a rural POP to a vendor ISP (don't forget those hosting costs) for $1500 a month, I have a bridge to sell you. Don't forget you'll have to have optical transmitters/receivers from your concentrator to the transport vendor.
Bottom line is that most companies don't have the resources to lay out that kind of start up cost without help from the Feds or state. Depending on how many subscribers you have out of each hub, it'll take quite some time to recover just the initial outlay.

This is all very interesting.

We live in STONE county, and it is aptly named here at Tablerock lake.

Last year, a private contractor buried fiber optic cable for 12 miles in our highway ditch and that gets it within a couple miles of our house. It will be suspended on the poles apparently to finish the rest of the way here.

I have no idea who funded that project because there is no way the few homes we have around here will pay that investment back in a very long time.

[BlackHelicopters]

Jefe. Hope you understand my sarcasm.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by kepp

I've heard that excuse from every DSL provider I've used. Either I'm the most unlucky user in DSL history, or its a canned, BS excuse. I'm going with #2.

This was the excuse from CenturyLink for us too. Our max speed was 512K (yes, K) but it was usually more like 250-300 K, when it wasn't down. For that privilege, we were paying almost $100 a month.

We switched to Hughesnet Gen 5 last summer on the cheapest 20GB plan and are leased with it, though there are serious limitations. You can't game with it due to latency and any streaming video eats up the cap. However, even the throttled speed is much better than what we had, so it's okay. I would like to drop DirecTV and do streaming only but that dream won't happen for some time. now I'm just satisfied that it no longer takes several minutes to load Amazon.

They laid fiber through our rural area several years ago. The cable runs less than a mile from our house but no ISPs are taking advantage of it currently. There is a company negotiating to put wireless on the mountain across the river from our house so someday I may have other options. The biggest thing right now is to find the parasitic things that are using up my cap (like DirecTV).

[rockymtnchief]

Originally Posted by kepp

I've heard that excuse from every DSL provider I've used. Either I'm the most unlucky user in DSL history, or its a canned, BS excuse. I'm going with #2.

Distance is a big factor in non-fiber networks. My folks live in a big town (150,000) and can't get broadband or DSL since they live on the outskirts.

On our existing copper plant (DSL), we have carrier systems that are fiber fed so we can reach people in remote areas. Distance also effects them since it's still copper to the NID.

Generally, if a subscriber is within a certain amount of feet from the carrier or the central office in town, it looks something like: 20,000' away (1.5M), 18,000' (3M), 12,000'-17,000' (6M), 3,000'-11,000' (24M), less than 3,000' (50M).

I've pushed 1.5M out past 64,000' with other equipment, but that was because they had 8 phone numbers and 2 DSL accounts. A small co-op may be willing to do that, but a large company probably won't. You open up a big can of worms with others that want the same and it's unreliable in lightning season.

If you think your provider is bullshitting you, you might be able to tell by the ped you're fed out of. Our company, but not all companies, have route/tap/distance on their peds. A ped in my area might look something like 1-2-3A/17.59. The 17.59 means you're 17,590 feet from a carrier cabinet or an office. The higher that number is, the slower your available speed might be. Again, not all companies do it that way and that is cable footage distance. Not as the crow flies or driving distance.

[seclark]

Originally Posted by rockymtnchief

Generally, if a subscriber is within a certain amount of feet from the carrier or the central office in town, it looks something like: 20,000' away (1.5M), 18,000' (3M), 12,000'-17,000' (6M), 3,000'-11,000' (24M), less than 3,000' (50M).

this is pretty close to what we shoot for too, depending on the condition of the plant and the customers premise.
we also supply our own modems. don't let the customers buy their own. include them in the monthly charges. if they go bad, we replace them. some people bitch, but in the long run it saves truck rolls.
sec

[rockymtnchief]

Originally Posted by seclark

this is pretty close to what we shoot for too, depending on the condition of the plant and the customers premise.
we also supply our own modems. don't let the customers buy their own. include them in the monthly charges. if they go bad, we replace them. some people bitch, but in the long run it saves truck rolls.
sec

Same here.

The biggest pain has been, like you mentioned, customer premise wiring. People get 50M in an old house with quad wiring and induction from everywhere...oooofda!

The town has a Facebook page and half the time it's people bitching about us and Charter. I take note and show up at their house and test speeds. 90% of the time, slow speeds are due to something in the houses here.

Of course, in our FTTH exchanges, we run a CAT5 straight to the router during install.